President Hamid Karzai urged international troops to prevent civilian casualties during military operations in an emotional appeal on Saturday, as six civilians were killed in two blasts and another was shot dead by NATO troops in southern region, dpa reported.
Two civilians were killed on Saturday in Nahr Saraj district of southern province of Helmand when their motorbike was struck by a roadside bomb, Afghan interior ministry said in a statement.
Four other civilians were killed in a similar attack in the neighboring province of Kandahar on Friday day, the statement said.
The seventh civilian was shot to death by NATO troops in Helmand's Nad Ali district after their soldiers suspected him of carrying an explosive device towards their patrol, NATO said in a statement on Saturday.
The troops later found that the man was civilian with no explosives in his possession.
The announcement about the civilian killings came hours after President Karzai appealed to NATO troops to make every effort to prevent civilian casualties during the current anti-Taliban push.
Karzai, who was speaking to lawmakers during the re-opening session of parliament after the winter break, choked up when he held up a picture of an eight-year-old girl, describing her as being the only survivor after a NATO rocket killed 12 members of her family earlier this week.
The civilians were killed during Operation Mushtarak, a Dari word for "together" that began in central Helmand last Saturday. The operation which is being conducted by 15,000 Afghan and NATO troops is the largest offensive since the ouster of Taliban regime in late 2001.
Karzai praised the work of NATO's top commander in Afghanistan, US General Stanley McChrystal, who has made protecting civilians the centerpiece of his war strategy. "The civilian casualties have been reduced, but it has to reach a point where there is no death at all," he said.
The NATO military has said that 16 civilians have been killed during Operation Mushtarak in the past eight days. Twelve NATO troops and one Afghan soldier have also been killed along with more than 40 Taliban fighters in the same period.
The combined forces have retaken "key areas" in Marjah town, one of the main bastions for the Taliban in the province, which was entirely controlled by the militants until recently. Afghan and NATO military have said that they needed several weeks before they clear the area of roadside mines and booby traps.
"Fighting remains difficult in the northeast and west of Marjah, but insurgent activity is not limited to those areas," the NATO military said on Saturday.
The Afghan and NATO troops were trying to reopen schools and provide jobs for the locals by launching reconstruction projects in the recently occupied areas in a bid to extend the central government authority in the district, the statement said.
Seven Afghans killed as Karzai urges NATO to avoid civilian deaths
